Crusader Bats Fend Off Scranton

Box Score

SCRANTON, Pa. – Six runs in the final two innings helped propel the Susquehanna baseball team to a 10-5 victory over Scranton to salvage the final game of a three-game Landmark Conference Series.

SU (11-15, 5-4) scored three runs in both the eighth and ninth innings and held the Royals (15-10, 5-3) scoreless for the final three innings of play to pick up the win.

Nick Ferlise (Toms River, N.J./Toms River North) went 2-for-4 with four RBI, one of four players with two-hit games. In total, seven different Crusaders collected at least one hit as SU finished with 11 hits.

Five pitchers saw action in the game. Starter Brian Wendig (West Chester, Pa./Malvern Prep) went 5.2 innings and gave up five runs (three earned) on nine hits with six strikeouts. Luc Kocher (Middlebury Center, Pa./Elkland) tossed 1.2 shutout innings and got credit for the win.

Scranton starter Corey Gorman pitched the first seven innings and racked up 10 strikeouts in the process.

Scranton held the early momentum after scoring a quick run in the first inning and adding two more runs in the bottom of the third.

SU used a three-run fourth inning, however, that tied the game at three. Ferlise accounted for all three runs as he knocked a one-out, three-run shot out of the park that made it 3-3.

The Royals regained the lead with another run in the bottom half of their inning to briefly go ahead 4-3 before a Nick Kennedy (Brookeville, Md./Good Council) RBI groundout in the top of the fifth again knotted the game, this time at four-all.

From that point on, the Crusaders out-scored Scranton by a 6-1 margin. Scranton's one run came in the bottom of the sixth to put the team up 5-4.

That remained the score until the top of the eighth when Susquehanna plated three runs, two of which scored on a Rob Marcickiewicz (Red Bank, N.J./Middletown South) two-RBI double that made it 7-5.

The Crusaders put three more runs on the board the very next inning thanks to three hits and one Royals error. Dylan Glassmire's (Doylestown, Pa./Central Bucks South) two-out RBI single plated the third and final run of the inning for a 10-5 SU lead.

Pitcher Matt Smith (Blue Ridge Summit, Pa./Wyoming Seminary) entered the game with one out in the ninth and retired the next three batters in order, including a game-ending strikeout of Edward Ravert.